Memorial Day '12

My wife Michelle organized us to go to the Fountain Valley veteran memorial by the civic center this evening for Family Night/Memorial Day. It was neat as our kids saw the memorials for the various wars (they shared what they have learned in school about the history of those wars), with the current plaque for the Afganistan conflict covered with flags and pictures of those who sacrificed their lives. Humbling to say the least. We also saw the 9/11 memorial for the city, made out of a piece of gorder from the WTC attacks. Michelle shared stories about Grandpa Stagg and the time he served in WW II away from his family. My father was in the airforce at the time of the Korean war, but never went to battle. We ended the evening by watching the movie "Saints and Soldiers", an emotional movie about sacrifice in war.

My dad in gear.

My dad in the Air Force.

Strategicon: Gamex 2012 Day 3

Obviously we never go to the game convention on Sunday, but I always go back for the last day on the Monday holiday. The main reason is the auction they hold where you can get great deals on games, and it is also entertaining. I was able to pick up a couple of games for great deals and it was worth it. With the convention closing down I only really played one game:

KINGDOM BUILDER: Rick Baptist, a guy I've gotten to know at the past Strategicons, taught me this game. I've been wanting to play it, by the same the guy who designed Dominion. It has great replayability, as you use 4 of the 12 boards provided, each with special pieces, and deal out 3 win condition cards out of 15 just for that game. The variety is very appealing, and game play is simple and straightforward as you lay pieces each turn trying to gain victory points according to that game's win conditions, and move next to special spaces which give you abilities for more plays. The only aspect I didn't like was a card you drew each turn to determine what type of terrain you could play on. This random element had a controlling factor in the game, but otherwise I liked it and did pretty well my first time, placing 3rd out of 5 players.

I am yellow and was not able to connect many places, but did fill every hex row (a victory point condition).

This is the area I started in and it became a bottleneck for me.

Strategicon: Gamex 2012 Day 2

Today's games at the convention were MUCH better and way more strategic. When I first arrived I spent some time at the flea market and was able to pick up NinjaBurger for Caleb as he liked it. I then went right into some events.

ENDEAVOR: I picked up this game at SaltCon but have never played it, so I went to a "Gaming 101" session to learn how to play it, then I played in the tournament. It is a very elegant game requiring balance and timing, much like Egizia. You are in Europe and acquire buildings that give you abilities to contribute to colonizing and adding to shipping lanes to reach other regions such as North America, the Indies, etc. As you do so you increase in your ability to build, increase population, wealth and prestige. There are a variety of mechanics and strategies to gain victory points. Very strategic with interesting decisions, I was enthralled. I made it to the finals of the tournament, but then got bombed by greater competition and came in 4th again. I can't wait to play this again.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: I absolutely loved the TV series and heard great things about the game, but have never been able to get a group together to play it fully. This was the opportunity. It takes a few hours to play, and is a great cooperative game with a traitor element.You play a character from the series, and have to overcome a variety of crisis, fight off cylon ship attacks, and jump the fleet to get closer to Kobol. And do that with 1-2 cyclons hiding among you and trying to thwart your efforts. There are great mechanics in the game by which all contribute skill cards to overcome the crisis, but cyclons can add the wrong cards without revealing who they are. In our game the humans (I was one) had a fairly easy time with the crisis, and it seemed the game was in hand even when the cyclons were revealed. But then it went downhill without the traitors really doing much Galactica was destroyed before they could make the final jump. This game is not for everyone, but great with the right crowd that is invested. I own the game and can't wait to play again.

I played Starbuck and am in the Viper with a red disk underneath to the rear of Galactica.

The FTL drive was damaged (front of the ship) and kept us from jumping.

TOBAGO: I love this game and think it is genius in its design, so we checked it out of the game library and I taught it to Nate & Tyler. We had a good time and it played well, they seemed to enjoy it. No game is ever the same so it stays fresh.

RA: Another game I own but have not played and have wanted to. One of the Startegicon staff taught it to us, and game designer Tom Jolley joined us. Ra is an auction game of tile collection for sets. The cool part is the auction and the sun tiles you use, it plays very smoothly and easily. I like the design (Reiner Knizia) and would definitely play it again.

Played some great games today, and even had the opportunity to chat for about 20 minutes with game designer Richard Borg and he gave me some tips and how to deal with publishers.

Strategicon: Gamex 2012 Day 1

I've been looking forward to this gaming convention, some members of LMB came this time so it was fun being in a group here. Caleb came again, but this time we didn't get a hotel. We arrived in LA about 1:00 PM and got right to it. We sat down at Steve Jackson games and tried the first thing we saw:

NINJA BURGER: Generally I do not play many Steve Jackson games, as they are very random and require little skill. Ninja Burger is no different as you make dice rolls against your ability scores to overcome obstacles to deliver burgers with ninja stealth to difficult places. The theme is cute and Caleb had fun, in fact he won our game and got a prize, Cthulhu Dice. We had to end the game early because, well, it wouldn't end quick enough.

FRAG: Our day was not starting out well, as instead of playing Carcassonne, we played another SJ game Frag, that is all about just killing your opponent. You move around the board, collect items if you can, and fire on opponents all based upon dice rolls. Whether you got new items all depended upon if you could roll a 4,5,6 on a d6, which of course I couldn't. You could get the best gun, ammo and position to shoot, and your opponent could just play a "Miss" card and you missed. This game was random and the closest to Candyland that I have ever played. To make it worse, our group of 4 played with an ex-marine dude who was aggro and a jerk to play with. He was "too" into it and it got heated. I hate not finishing a game, but the arguing of some players left a bad taste and I walked away from it. I could imagine the game might be cool, but it was too random and one of the worst experiences ever.

FLASH POINT FIRE RESCUE: I had been looking at this game and found some one to teach us and it was fun. It is a cooperative game that was published through Kickstarter funding, and I had almost contributed to it. We played the basic game and kicked its butt, rescuing all 10 victims of the fire (you only need 7 to win) and left no flames in the home. We were showed the advanced game and saw how much more challenging it was, it seems like a fun game with general appeal. I'd like to get it.

Caleb contemplates putting out the fire.

LAST WILL: I had just learned this game last night, so I got into the tournament at the con. It was even better learning more strategies, but I must admit I was more scared of buying properties and just relied on the one strategy I know of finding one activity and maximizing it. I advanced to the finals, but really blew it there by not trying new strategies and came in 4th place. Each play so far gets better and I would like this in my game rotation.

WITS & WAGERS: I've played this party game before, and we played it just to relax and take a break. Betting on trivia.

WIZ-WAR: This game was just recently re-released (8th edition) so we checked it out from the game library to learn to play it, another mistake. First of all it was really late, and we didn't read all the rules, so our attempt to play was poor. The game is that you are a wizard protecting two treasures, and the one that gets two of either the treasures or killing a wizard wins. Its basically capture the flag without a team, choose to go after a wizard or his treasure, or protect yours. You special abilities and spells are all based upon cards that you drew each round. It was similar to Frag in how random it was, and how in the luck of the draw one card made the difference. Hated it.

I had a fun day, but hoping to have a better game selection tomorrow.

Game Session

I was limited in my time for this game night as my boy had a baseball game. The group had already played Shadow Hunters, So I played a few rounds of JAB boxing. We then divided into two groups, one playing Small World and I tried out a new game, Last Will. It's a pretty cool game, kind of like the movie Brewster's Millions. You have inherited a portion of an uncle's estate in 19th century England, but according to your uncle's will, the key is you must spend your inheritance in order to gain the full millions that he had. The first player to go bankrupt ends the game, and the winner is the one deepest in debt. Its a great idea, and in many ways goes against the general goal to winning games. You spend each turn by going on boat rides, eating fancy dinners, going to the theater, etc. But you can also bring companions along that spends more money, and even make real estate investments and run them into the ground (buy high, sell low). It has great action selection mechanics, with many interesting and significant decisions. Last Will is not too difficult to learn, and ther theme I think has a general appeal. I really like this one and hope to play it again.




Shadow Hunters
W- Nate J, Jared
L- Matt F, Tim R, Tyler H, Matt N, Josh D, Charles G

JAB
W- Brett H, John S, Dallin E, Tim R
L- John S, Brett H, Charles G, Charles G

Small World
1- Lauren T, 2- Tim R, 3- Dallin E, 4- Mike H

Last Will
1- Brett H, 2- Tyler H, 3- Josh D, 4- Matt N, 5- Nate J

Dizzyland

Good times at Disneyland with the family. We miss Brittany, but we can still have a good time with the rest of the family in Cali!

 BEFORE . . . .

. . . . AFTER

BEFORE . . . .

. . . . AFTER

Solar Eclipse

With clouds filtering in, we could see the solar eclipse late this afternoon from our backyard. The haze made it easier to see as they drifted by, and I snapped a bunch of photos of the event. Pretty cool, doesn't happen every day. Hannah first alerted me to it, and Caleb joined us in observing.

Check out the slideshow or click to see all the images:

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